Vacation

For our summer vacation this year we drove to Utah for a family reunion with Jason's Mom's brothers and all their kids and families. On the drive there we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Quillen's house and enjoyed seeing them for the first time since they got home from China. The kids all loved their presents from China, including this dress Ali got (which was actually from Vietnam).

We loved seeing my brother JD and his family and my sister Emily and her family, and I loved that the ladies came up with the idea for a girl's night with fudge, massages, and nails. It made my short stop over with them feel like more of a visit and was so much fun.

For the first couple of days in Utah we stayed with our good friends the Andersons. These are the kind of friends that, no matter how long it's been since you saw them (a couple years in our cases), it feels like no time as passes.

First Day

This year is a little different for our family, schoolwise. We have two Middle Schoolers (!), one in 3rd grade at the Elementary School, and one Preschooler. We we have three different send off times beginning at 7:30am and ending at 9am. But everyone is excited for what the year will bring, so we'll make adjustments and enjoy the ride!

We got to go check out lockers and walk the Middle School to find classes a couple days before school started. I was impressed with how confident and self sufficient these two were in finding their classes!

Then we got to go to our familiar stomping grounds and see Eli's teacher who was actually Ali's teacher last year (she changed the grade she's teaching), so even that feels very familiar and comfortable!

Hardly any (at least visible) jitters for these two! So ready for 6th grade!

And all smiles here!

We'll have another update when Jake starts in two more weeks, and until then he is enjoying time with mommy.

Dominos

Look at that domino chain! Teamwork and persistence!

Indiana Dunes

We had planed a camping trip to Nauvoo, but the weather called for thunderstorms, so at the last minute we changed our plans to a day trip to the Indiana Sand Dunes. We had such a fun day! When we first got there Jake decided the wind was too cold and wanted to go home. He cried for a while and then I was finally able to convince him he'd be warm enough if he wore my cover-up! 

The water was REALLY cold, but that never seems to stop kids.

He finally warmed up and had fun!

We cooked hot dogs over a fire for dinner, and while we were waiting for dad to get it all set up the kids and I found this cool bridge! They were braver than me and went out as far as I would let them...!

Sewer

A couple of our blankets needed new hems and my girl was able to do it for me!

Vacuumed in Carbonite

The boys needed to try the experiment where you get in a plastic bag and suck the air out of it with a vacuum. They decided that is what Han Solo must have felt like when he was frozen in Carbonite!

Errands

Never a dull moment with this errand buddy.